


Persuasion

by HASA_Archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: First Age, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-18
Updated: 2015-04-18
Packaged: 2018-03-23 13:05:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3769601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HASA_Archivist/pseuds/HASA_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short tale of Lúthien, told by the perspective of ...  a different author. See if you can guess who it is. Yes, I do have better things to do. For "A Tale By Any Other Name" challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Persuasion

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

In the regions of Doriath where, happily, the natural course of life is rarely disrupted by the wayward affections of afflicted hearts, this pervasive serenity was most unfortunately disturbed by a series of unadumbrated and not completely unwished-for maleficent events.

The King and Queen’s daughter, Lúthien, an amiable child, had a convivial temperament which rarely evoked undesired emotions in her progenitors’ peaceable life. However, a most egregious event had now befallen: Miss Lúthien had been so recalcitrant and opprobrious to the poor desires of her parents as to fall in love! And not only fall in love, but to devise secret rendezvous in the forest with the miscreant! Her parents, uncomprehending such uncanny behaviour from their usually submissive daughter, consulted one another concerning the preceding events.

“My dear Melian, What shall we do! To think that Lúthien has chosen such an inopportune time to do such a thing! With the war and Morgoth’s forces brewing in the North! How selfish and unexpected! Oh, my poor nerves.”

“My dear Thingol, how well I understand your nerves. They have been my constant companion these eight hundred and thirteen years. But I think we need not fear for Lúthien.” This was as if to say that their daughter’s abstruseness would not intrude upon their familial felicity.  
  
“You know, I feel she has gone mad.”

“My husband, you exaggerate.”

“I will call her to us and she will explain these circumstances for herself.”

When she came, her countenance was calm, as if nothing had troubled it for the entire span of her life. She looked curiously at her parents.

“Why, what is it, father?”

“Lúthien,” he said gently, “I have heard such rumors about your conduct to make me fear. Now, tell me: have you been meeting with someone in the woods.”

She blinked innocently. “Of course, father. Did not you know?”

Thingol, stunned by so refractory a statement given by so innocent a tongue, leaned back in his chair in surprise and stared at his daughter, wondering how so Quixotic a notion could have overturned a once stable mind without any pretense of insanity accompanying it.

“And who … who is this miscreant?”

She laughed, “My dear father, he is no miscreant. He is my fiancé.”

The poor Elf King looked with horror-laden visage at his daughter. “Your fiancé! Why – “

His wife leaned over and whispered to him, “Now, my dear, perhaps we should summon him and speak to him ourselves.”

“Very well,” he grumbled. He turned to his progeny. “Bring the villain here. We will deal with him as is fit.”

Lúthien nodded, “Yes, father,” backing away, deeming correctly that her father had no compunction for disregarding her and her fiancé’s prenuptial felicity; and aghast that so romantic a feeling should cause such discord amongst her relations.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
Yes, you are correct: this satirical style is imitated from Jane Austen's work. Forgive me: I know I have not done her justice.


End file.
